Energy Exchange

How Policy Can Drive Progress In The Energy Efficiency Market

By Kate Zerrenner / Published: June 20, 2013

Energy efficiency is one of the fastest and most affordable ways to reduce harmful pollution. Why, then, aren’t we financing more energy efficiency upgrades?

Well, simply put, there are quite a few barriers that must be addressed and broken down before energy efficiency skyrockets. Yes, there are already many buildings that have set the bar high for others to follow, but some investor and lender hesitancies still exist that we need to overcome.

Furthermore, the efficiency market cannot create itself. And it is currently stifled, despite investors’ eagerness to take part.

The problem, as the investment community sees it, is that there is no secondary market for energy efficiency loans. In other words, the pool of loans is currently not large enough to make these investments worthwhile for institutional investors. Furthermore, there is a lack of uniform standards for energy efficiency loans, limited data on loan and project performance and an insufficient pipeline of projects. There are also challenges to bringing efficiency to scale, namely:

the split incentive—disconnect between the building owner and the residents, who actually pay the utility bill;
utility disincentives—utilities generally make money by selling more energy, not by reducing wasted energy; and
limited information available to consumers on their energy use.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Investor Confidence Project, On-bill repayment / Comments are closed

Investor Confidence Project Releases Enhanced Energy Efficiency Protocols

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 14, 2013

This blog post was written by guest blogger Matt Golden, Senior Energy Finance Consultant.

Source: City-Data.com

The EDF Investor Confidence Project (ICP) is a multi-year initiative to help spur growth in the commercial energy efficiency retrofit market by reducing transaction costs and engineering overhead, and increasing the reliability and consistency of savings. EDF has worked with a cross-functional team of industry experts to assemble existing technical standards and best practices into a straightforward Energy Performance Protocol (EPP) that defines a standard investment quality energy efficiency project to enable deal-flow and investment.

In November of 2012, we released the initial version of the Energy Performance Protocol for Large Commercial (EPP-LC). We received encouraging reviews from industry allies and many industry leaders have committed to join our growing ICP Ally program, a broad based network of organizations that helps us develop, test, and implement the ICP Protocols.

New Release: Large Commercial – Version 1.1

Building on our initial success and market feedback, ICP is now releasing a new and updated version 1.1 of the EPP-LC, which incorporates a wide array of important improvements that will streamline the project development process and improve results.

Our ICP team is incredibly grateful to all individuals that contributed their time and energy to this process resulting in a more streamlined protocol, especially our committed team of experts who dedicated untold hours and contributed a wide array of industry, research, and public sector experience.

Energy From The Sea: Closer Than You Think

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 12, 2013

This commentary, authored by Rod Fujita, originally appeared on EDF Voices.

The ocean absorbs energy from the sun, stores it, and then releases it slowly. Sounds like a prescription for meeting the world’s energy needs, since the ocean is the largest feature of our planet. But can ocean energy be tapped in a way that doesn’t create more problems than it solves?

That’s the promise behind a recently announced deal between Lockheed Martin and Reignwood Group, a resort developer based in Beijing. The two companies will develop a 10-megawatt power plant using ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology in waters off southern China’s Hainan Island. Construction is expected to be completed in 2017.

The process

Scientists have long been interested in the potential for generating energy from the difference in temperature between warm surface waters and deep water. When this difference is large – for example, in tropical locations with narrow continental shelves – the warm water can be used to convert a liquid (like ammonia) into steam. The steam drives a turbine, producing electricity, and then is recondensed into a liquid using cold water pumped up from the deep ocean so that the cycle can be repeated.

Benefits

The OTEC process can produce a number of benefits in addition to clean electricity. The large volumes of cold water pumped through the system can be used to cool buildings, saving on air conditioning (and associated greenhouse gas emissions from this major energy consumer). Lots of freshwater condenses on the cold water pipes, especially in humid tropical environments – so much that it can become a viable supplement to local water supplies or even the major water source for local communities. Read More »

Posted in Renewable Energy / Comments are closed

Methane Research: The Data Pursuit Continues

By Mark Brownstein / Published: June 11, 2013

Source: Kinder Morgan

Is natural gas really better for the climate? This may seem like a simple question. After all, natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel. And data from the Energy Information Administration in April showed a downward trend in U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A move many experts believe is largely attributed to the increased production of U.S. natural gas and the shift it has caused in the power sector – old, dirty coal plants being retired because new natural gas plants are more competitive.

But, this is only part of the story. Natural gas is comprised primarily of methane, and unburned methane is an incredibly potent greenhouse gas – 72 times more powerful than CO2 over the first two decades it is released.

The oil and gas industry is one of the largest domestic sources of methane, and while new gas reserves are being drilled every day, too little is known about how much and from where methane is leaking out from across the natural gas system. Lack of direct measurements has been a challenge, as EDF’s Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg explains here.

The need for better data to understand and control methane emissions in order to understand the true climate opportunity of natural gas led to EDF’s largest scientific research project. This effort currently involves about 85 academic, research and industry partners subdivided over five areas of the value chain (production, gathering and processing, transmission and storage, local distribution and transportation). Read More »

Posted in Climate, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

White House Leadership Summit On Women, Climate And Energy

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 6, 2013

This commentary, authored by Katie Walsh, originally appeared on EDF Climate Corps.

After an incredible week of EDF Climate Corps Training last month, I had the opportunity to speak at the White House for an inaugural one-day summit on Women, Climate and Energy organized by the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House Office of Public Engagement.

I joined a distinguished group of 100 women from business, research, government and the nonprofit sector to discuss our work in climate and energy. I provided the closing address highlighting the need to bridge silos by opening up our climate change ‘narratives’ to better engage diverse audiences as well as use tactics that push the envelope on climate change action.

Debating Solutions – Not Science

Newly appointed Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz opened the summit with a statement that I couldn’t agree with more: “I’m not here to debate the undebatable; climate change is real and urgent and science demands a prudent response. Now the question is: what are the solutions? This is the legitimate debate; let’s debate the solutions, as opposed to the drivers.” On top of the list of solutions he noted the Obama Administration working on is energy efficiency – in buildings, appliances, vehicles and the industrial sector. Efficiency gains provide win-win solutions. An example is the more than $2 trillion dollars to be saved from appliance standards revisions along with the associated carbon emission reductions. Another example is the $1.2 billion in energy efficiency savings EDF Climate Corps fellows have identified in that last 5 years. Read More »

Posted in Climate / Tagged EDF Climate Corps | Comments are closed

Full steam ahead: California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard

By Tim O'Connor / Published: June 4, 2013

California’s 5^th District Court of Appeals issued a tentative ruling yesterday in favor of California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) moving forward. The case is POET, LLC v. California Air Resources Board (CARB) and POET, a South Dakota ethanol producer, had alleged that CARB violated the California Environmental Quality Act in adopting the LCFS and should be barred from further implementation.

Recognizing the grave implications of discontinuing the LCFS, including derailing the state’s progress to cut greenhouse gas pollution and produce innovative alternative fuels, EDF took part in an amicus, or “friend of the court,” letter brief in support of CARB that was submitted to the Court.

In their tentative ruling, and at oral arguments in Fresno on May 30^th, the court stated that CARB would have to remedy certain procedural issues, but that the LCFS should be able to move forward. While Plaintiffs technically won, this ruling means they were thwarted in their underlying objective of slowing momentum towards a lower carbon and more sustainable transportation fuel system.

This case also showed that the LCFS continues to have wide and broadening support. Organizations as diverse as PG&E, the Sierra Club, EDF, and the National Biodiesel Board have all submitted amicus letters to the court affirming that the LCFS is an important tool for spurring innovation and improving human health and the environment.

As we have written about here, here and here, there is still another case pending in the 9^th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals that challenges the LCFS under the US Constitution. But the future looks bright as once again; state environmental policies have successfully weathered a challenge by out-of-state challengers who would rather litigate than innovate. Hopefully now that delays are off the table, POET and similar companies will become part of the solution by moving their profits and human talent away from litigation and towards technological advancements that scale up production of low-carbon fuels, cutting climate pollution, reducing smog, and growing their business.

Posted in General / Comments are closed